In January-June, 10.6 million passengers (+5.0%) flew through Finland’s largest international hub, Helsinki Airport. At Finavia’s regional airports, the number of total passengers grew to 2.2 million (+0.3%). The amount of passengers grew the most at Rovaniemi Airport (+7.9%), Turku Airport (+7.4%) and Helsinki Airport.
“At the same time as traffic continues to grow, we are doing significant construction and renovation work at Helsinki, Rovaniemi and Kittilä Airports. It is a complex equation in a round-the-clock environment, but it is a necessity to ensure we are able to provide the best connections from Finland to the world in the future. It is worth noting that as air traffic has increased, we have grown sustainably. All of Finavia’s 21 airports are carbon neutral and all of the electricity used at Helsinki Airport is renewable”, says Joni Sundelin, Senior Vice President for Route Development and Director of Helsinki Airport. “
The significance of transfer passengers remains high – the number of international transfer passengers, meaning passengers transferring from an international flight to another international flight at Helsinki Airport, has increased by 15.0%. The highest number of transfer passengers are on routes to and from Japan, Germany, Sweden and China.
June was record-breaking busy
Another record was broken at Helsinki Airport with over two million passengers travelling through the airport in June (+5.1%). During the busiest day in June there were about 74 000 passengers compared to a daily average of 58 000 in January-June. 82% of passengers, about 8.7 million, flew on international scheduled flights in January-June.
The number of flights at Helsinki Airport grew by 2.5% in January-June – there were about 94 000 scheduled or charter flights. In total, Finavia’s airports had approximately 126 000 scheduled or charter flights in January-June (+0.7%).
New Airlines and long-haul routes to Finland
During the past year, there have been historic moments at Helsinki Airport with two Chinese airlines starting direct intercontinental flights from China to Helsinki. Tibet Airlines started operating a direct route from Jinan in April and Juneyao Air started a direct route from Shanghai at the end of June. In addition, European Air Serbia started operating the first direct route from Serbia’s capital Belgrade to Helsinki at the beginning of June.
In January-June, there were 260 000 passengers (+1.8%) on Chinese routes and 385 000 passengers on Japanese routes (+9.0%). Including the new Jinan route, there are now connections to eight destinations in China. In the autumn, three weekly connections will be added to the new Beijing Daxing International Airport in China. Also starting from the next winter season, there will be flights from Helsinki to Guangzhou in China all year round.
“Transfer passengers from Asia have a major role at Helsinki Airport thanks to our ideal geographical location between Asia and Europe. At the moment, there are 51 flights to China and 41 flights to Japan every week”, Joni Sundelin says.
In January-June, there were about 195 000 passengers to North America, which is 47 800 more compared to the same period last year (+32.5%). The North American routes have grown thanks to, for example, the opening of a direct connection to Los Angeles.
The most popular destinations remain the same, new routes from regional airports
The most popular destinations from all Finavia’s airports have been Germany, Sweden and Spain. From regional airports, the highest number of passengers on international flights were to and from Sweden. The number of direct routes from Turku to Europe have grown significantly.
Wizz Air has opened a direct route from Turku to Kaunas, Krakow and London. Wizz Air will also start flying directly to Skopje in North Macedonia at the end of July and to Kutaisi in Georgia next year. The number of passengers at Turku Airport grew to 202 000 in January-June (+7.4%).
In December, Turkish Airlines will open a direct route from Istanbul to Rovaniemi, which will greatly enhance the connectivity to and from Northern Finland. The attractivity of Northern Finland remains good – there were 794 000 passengers at Lapland airports in January-June (+4.4%).
The development of Helsinki Airport progresses as planned
The past year has been a period of major changes at Helsinki Airport as new terminal extensions have been opened and traffic arrangements have changed. The biggest changes have now been done, and the construction work is progressing according to plan. The border control expansion is opening soon, and the entire West Pier will be opened during autumn. In addition, the new Parking House P1/P2 will be opened by October 2020 at the latest.
Finavia releases air traffic statistics on their website every month. Read more about the Development Programme here and about Responsibility at Finavia here.
